Red Bull F1 appeal rejected

Red Bull's appeal against Daniel Ricciardo's exclusion from the Australian Grand Prix has been rejected by the FIA International Court of Appeal

Red Bull's appeal against Daniel Ricciardo's exclusion from the Australian Grand Prix has been rejected by the FIA International Court of Appeal (ICA).

After Red Bull, the FIA and Mercedes all stated cases in front of the ICA on Monday - with Mercedes calling for a tougher sanction - the decision was announced on Tuesday morning that the appeal had been rejected.

"The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the Decision N?56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing's car N?3 from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix," the decision read.

Full details of how the five judges reached that decision have yet to be announced, with the ICA saying it will be made public by the end of the week.

During the hearing, the FIA claimed that the technical directives are used to give the teams guidance on how to comply with the regulations, with Jonathan Taylor - representing the FIA - saying Red Bull should not be allowed to ignore such a request regardless of the reasoning.

"Why is it important?" Taylor asked. "Sport has to be on a level playing field. It needs an authoritative way of measuring ... A team can't pick and choose methods of measurement and when they do or don't use them".

There is nothing in the decision regarding any further punishment for Red Bull, despite the calls of Mercedes on Monday. Paul Harris QC - representing the team again having previously done so for the Pirelli tyre test tribunal - described the Red Bull approach as a "flagrant breach" of the FIA's direction and called for the court to impose a suspended further sanction on top of the original exclusion due to fears it will repeat the alleged offence in future.

"We are, frankly, and with great respect, concerned that Red Bull have shown such a flagrant and deliberate disregard for these rules that there is a real risk that they will do it again," Harris said. "We are here to seek to ensure that does not happen. We must have a level playing field going forward for the remainder of the season.

"We respectively submit that the most effective way of ensuring that Red Bull do not flout further written and oral instructions from the FIA - at least for the remainder of this season - is for this court to recognise the severity of their infringement and to impose a further sanction upon them, which is to be suspended for the remainder of the season so that they are acutely alert for the remainder of the season that there is no possibility of them transgressing the boundaries again."